Posted!

Join the Conversation

Wichita County voters rush to make voices heard; nearly triple the turnout compared to 2014

Trish Choate, For the Times Record News
Published 4:12 p.m. CT Oct. 23, 2018

Buy Photo

A steady stream of lunchtime voters wait as long as 25 minutes in line at Sikes Senter Mall in Wichita Falls to cast their ballots for early voting. Monday's turnout approaches 2016 presidential election figure.(Photo: Lauren Roberts via Twitter/Times Record News)Buy Photo

Wichita County voters flocked to the polls the first day of early voting Monday, joining the statewide rush to make their voices heard in midterm elections.

The surge was so intense that the Wichita County Courthouse polling place ran out of “I voted” stickers Monday morning, using up a roll that was to last all two weeks of early voting, according to a Facebook post.

Voter turnout Monday in Wichita County for midterms was in the ballpark of first-day early voting in 2016 when President Donald Trump faced off with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to figures from the Wichita County Clerk’s Office.

Wichita County Clerk Lori Bonhannon said 2,291 people voted in person Monday when early voting began for Nov. 6 midterms.

That is 506 fewer ballots cast than in the last presidential election.

In 2016, the number of voters pouring to the polls to give a nod to Trump or Clinton the first day of early voting was 2,797, according to the Clerk’s Office.

Typically, voter turnout sags during midterm elections, which don’t usually hold the same allure as presidential year contests, according to political science experts.

For Wichita County, the contrast is stark between this year’s and 2014 midterms.

The first-day early voting total for November 2014 midterm elections was 765, according to the Clerk’s Office.

The largest number of votes cast Monday was at Sikes Senter Mall where 709 people voted, Bohannon said.

On Tuesday morning, voting came to halt for a time at Sikes while election officials dealt with an issue causing machines to shut off.

“We think what it was, is someone kept tripping the reset on the electrical outlet,” Bohannon said. “We rearranged.”

“But everybody was real nice. They stayed there,” she said. “Everybody is getting to vote.”

Texans statewide exercised their right to vote in record-breaking numbers Monday.

In Dallas County, more than 42,000 cast a ballot by 4:30 p.m., putting the county in range of exceeding the first day of early voting for the 2016 presidential election, according to the Associated Press.

In the north Dallas suburb of Plano, the wait to vote early was about 30 minutes Monday afternoon at one polling place, according to the Associated Press.

Tarrant County racked up more than 37,000 votes – just about tripling first-day early voting turnout for 2014.

In Harris County, voters set a new record for first-day early voting in midterms, casting 36,000 votes within six hours of the polls opening, according to the Association Press.

That outpaced the approximately 26,000 votes cast there in 2010 midterms on opening day of early voting.

In Travis County, more than 32,000 people voted in person Monday – which is more than triple first-day totals in 2014 midterms, according to a Facebook post by Travis County Tax Assessor Collector Bruce Elfant.

Some political experts predicted the heated battle between U.S. Rep. Ted Cruz, the Republican incumbent, and U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, an El Paso Democrat, would ratchet up turnout in this year’s midterms.